blogging epic 2008day 3 (though I skipped 1 entirely)

in between conference sessions, originally uploaded by gorgeoux.

This is the main building of the conference, quiet as most of the city. A city of ghosts, no matter how pretty. There was no way I was going to carry my laptop after the late night last night. Macs are a bit too heavy and thick, in all their coolness. The newer models launched a few days ago seem less cool, though lighter, and have also lost a few important ports and functionalities. Back to EPIC, however.

Morning!
Artifacts & Breakfast sounded like a good promise until we got there. We cared about two in particular, From Logs to People by Jens Riegelsberger and Olga Khroustaleva, Google and Making "Media Landscape" Visible: Usage of Media in Japan and Korea via Home-visiting-method by Aya Kubosumi & Noriko Ohara, Konica Minolta Technology Center, Inc. Both poorly presented on their small and visually unattractive posters, the first one arrogant on top of it, while the second—accompanied by a poor paper, with which in university days, not to mention professional days... I wouldn't have gotten away. It makes a lot of sense that we quickly extracted ourselves and had a brisk walk in the blessed sun to the five-minutes away street filled with cafes that serve Illy. Instead of the conference undrinkable potion. Undrinkable to some Europeans, I'm sure, and sadder in the context of very good food across the conference.

Morning! Second try.
Session 3: Navigating People and Praxis Across Space and Time, curated by Donna K. Flynn, Ph.D. (Microsoft Corporation), who couldn't make it. Hmm. Not the first. This seems childish.

1. All that is seen and unseen: the physical environment as informant by Lisa Reichenbach (InSync Strategy) and Magda Wesolkowska (Anthropology in Design)

What's everyone writing down so feverishly and why do they do it as seriously as in class? The presentation might have been more exciting in a different form and/ or different presentations style.

Treat the physical environment as an informant. Physical environment = foundational part of lived experience—oh, how it makes my brain curl!

2. The space between Mine & Ours: Exploring the subtle spaces between the private and the shared in India by Ashwini Asokan (Intel Corporation)

In India they don't speak that language. There is no privacy in the black and white understanding existent in The U.S. (MY room, MY door, knocking at the door).

Private and shared states not mutually exclusive, implying subtle negotiations, while grey spaces help with social taboos. Getting away with doing things unnoticed (in the social space) that you couldn't get away with (alone in another room).

A second perception: privacy as privilege. Father to son, potentially: you'll get privacy, as a kid, as long as you know that it (what you're doing/ privacy) is wrong.

Seeking privacy in public, e.g. hanging out with friends in cafes, having escaped home.

Hiding content out there, e.g. on the Internet, in the physical social network.

Two of several outcomes that caught my eye more: security implications, and going beyond passwords, which are not subtle enough a way to gain/ maintain privacy.

Was informative, fun, and one of the very few to slightly connect with future design.

3. Staging Ethnography: The Decisive Moment of Knowing by Michelle Chang (Red Associates) and Matthew Lipson (Orange FT). The latter couldn't make it, either...

Drawing negative spaces which a. can't transpire b. can(not) be captured and c. is in between.

This way we can change focus from the obvious, from what we already know, from what we think it's there, from what we believe ought to be there.

Dense presentation, really interesting, would like to give it more time if it's online.

Certainly at ReD we have a bias for innovation. Would sound good on their website, in other media.

4. Putting Mobility on the map: researching journeys and the research journey by Simon Roberts (Intel Corporation)

Irish saying: If you're lost, it's because you started in the wrong place.

The dubious pleasure of working in large corporations. The humor of surviving in them.

On a (research) journey, managers are like children: are we there yet?

Most entertaining moment of the day, though once again, unclear where the research led :( While I don't know whether he's half as good in writing, I'm excited to see he's got a blog, The Ideas Bazaar.

5. The QAME of Transdisciplinary Ethnography by Elizabeth Tunstall (University of Illinois)

Ethnography at the junction among Anthropology, Marketing, and Design. Thus, the job of an ethnographer can be described differently in each of the three fields by looking at his/ her Questions, Assumptions, Methods and Evidence (QAME).

Of anthropological ethnographers: As one of my professors says, the merchants of the exotic.

Of marketing ethnographers: they are selectors. They value human beings differently for different clients, so by valuing some higher, the ethnographers change the relationship.

Would also look deeper into this one, though QAME and the omission of other related fields mainly recommend it as a starting point, not a destination. Too dense, again.

Great concepts or weird buzzwords from the audience? A. empathic strategic planning and B. storytelling as a form of strategic business engagement. Established, it'd seem.

About this point we grabbed lunch earlier than yesterday, trying not to overhear the silly networking chatter, and went to the charity shop across the street for a drinkable (not great) espresso in china cups, a quiet moment on a nice sofa surrounded by large windows, and a look around. My personal blog will certainly detail my cool findings in the coming days.

Siesta...
Panel: Directors of the Future. Panelists Michael Winnick of gravitytank, Nina Wakeford of Goldsmiths, University of London, and Ken Anderson of Intel each wrote a scenario about the future of ethnography five years from now. They also directed the actors from Dacapo, a company focused on the forum theatre tradition.

The actors and the storyteller did a great job, the directing and envisioning ethnographers scored various points in my book, and the audience proved silly, as usual. Of course, that is partly because all smart asses like me were busy... sitting on their asses, with a single exception that was dutifully ignored. My biggest learning was seeing Ken Anderson at work briefly, and my only other thought was yeah, these people (in the panel, but more so in the audience) are really disconnected from the real world that feeds them, more often than not. Disconnected in behaviour, in perceptions, in expectations, in practice EXCEPT, seemingly, Ken Anderson.

Now, he's one of the two founders of EPIC (four years ago) and the Internets tell me that among his areas of interest there is a very juicy one: transnationals and cosmopolites in and between urban environments. Sadly, his page seems to have vanished from the (very badly designed) Intel website, and he appears to have no blog, so I'm guessing I'll have to dig deeper for his thinking.

Engage!
Of the two open house tours we chose, the first proved interesting enough that we never made it to the second company, also finding ourselves within five minutes distance to our hotel. Being in a group didn't help, either, though it's fair to say that the most unpleasant side of it was an individual—a terrifically rude woman that could've easily upset both our kind hosts.

Speaking of which, Snitker & Co. shared with us beautiful and knowledge-packed stories about user experience research, usability studies, testing all sorts of gadgets and applications and building personas. On a different day, having more energy about me, I would've stayed longer, as we were invited, to chat and get inspired. A great end to the conference day for us, sneaking away yet another time, but we believe one has to choose one's experiences and not follow the herd like a sheep.

A slow walk to and by the waterfront in the rarely seen sun, and a discussion about what we'd do better (one of our biggest obsessions) sealed the day. There will be no live blogging tomorrow either, due to the complex logistics of luggage, check out, walking a lot, having only half a day at EPIC, walking even more, and heading to the airport, eventually. But there could be a wrap-up kind of post, if anything of interest intervenes or sediments.

Isn't it funny how we start arrogant, as children, get humbled in a profession or other, sooner or later, only to go back to arrogance? I'm talking about myself, of course.


Follow EPIC 2008 on Twitter and Flickr, as well.